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PTC Insider Article
December 2003
2003 Parents
Television Council Victories
PTC
Advertiser Campaign Causes TV Sponsors to Change the Way They Do Business
The PTC continues to
make significant strides in its campaign to hold television advertisers
responsible for the
content of the programs they support with their advertising dollars. Because
of the PTC's efforts to educate sponsors about program content, we've
already seen major changes in the way companies view television sponsorship.
Several major national corporations are using the PTC's Family Guide to
Prime Time Television as a guide in making sponsorship decisions. Many more
have established stricter
guidelines for their ad buyers to ensure that their sponsorship dollars
don't go to support programs with offensive messages and content.
Before the fall
television season started, ad buyers were starting to steer clear of raunchy
reality series, which meant that some of the trashiest shows on TV,
including Married by America and Are You Hot? will not be
returning. USA Today reports, "As the TV networks prepare to show off their
fall lineups to advertisers... a backlash is brewing among some big ad
spenders against the trashier aspects of reality TV... Some top marketers
are yanking ads from raunchier reality that has cluttered network
schedules." The PTC has led this campaign nationally.
In the summer of
2003, the PTC launched a major effort to alert advertisers to the obscene
content on the new FX drama series Nip/Tuck. Nip/Tuck has
lowered the bar for sexual depravity, almost ceaseless foul language, and
bloodthirsty violence on advertiser supported expanded basic cable TV. Describing the
content on Nip/Tuck, the Wall Street
Journal said, "Some of its content would make Samantha from HBO's Sex and
the City blush. The network warns viewers that the program may not be
suitable for anyone under 17. Only the f-word seems off limits in terms of
language, and the show's graphic depictions of sex and
plastic surgery leave little to the imagination."
The PTC contacted
every company that advertised on the
program and mobilized our 800,000 members to write to the program's sponsors
as well. Under pressure from the PTC and its members, 14 of Nip/Tuck's
advertisers discovered that the show's content was not up to their company's
standards and alerted us that they had removed advertising from future
episodes or did not renew media buys. Many of these advertisers found their
advertisements
placed on the graphic program without their prior knowledge or approval.
Another 32 advertisers removed their advertising from the program or did not
renew their ad buys with Nip/Tuck without alerting the PTC or other
Like
Minded Organizations.
It is a sign of the
PTC's success in making advertisers aware of the program's content that in
spite of the series' high ratings, according to the Wall Street Journal,
FX was having a hard time selling ad time on the show.
The PTC also
continues to encourage major corporations to stop advertising on raunchy
television programming by participating in shareholder meetings around the
country. As you've read on page two of this month's Insider, we've
tried to publicly praise companies that behave responsibly by putting their
advertising dollars behind wholesome,
family-friendly programming.
This May, PTC Board
member, Dr. C. DeLores Tucker attended the annual shareholder meeting for
Yum! brands (Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut) in Louisville, KY to address the
company's record of sponsoring some of the most offensive shows on
television and failing to respond to the PTC's efforts to contact them about
their sponsorship behavior. The PTC was promised the Chairman and CEO of
Yum! Brands would personally review the programs the PTC mentioned during
the shareholders meeting.
Other 2003
Victories
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